"Humph! By Jove! I'm having
some fun out of my broken knee, after
all--electrifying you girls," gurgled the
still racked voice. "Dramatic setting for@
a denouement, too, the old Man Killer
trail!"

"But why--oh! why-y did you do it?"
Pem snatched up the rag of parachute
again, her eyes going wildly from the
soot-like scrap of silk to a wonderful,
antique ring upon the little finger of the
pale hand which twitched so strangely
below her.

"What! S-steal the little record, you
mean!" The bushy eyebrows were
twitching, too. "Well! maybe I want-ed
to make sure, for myself, that the rocket
really had gone higher than anything
earthly ever flew yet, before--before I
resigned a fortune to it."

That was the moment when the nuggets
all turned to rocks again for Pemrose.
He saw the change in her face.

"Oh! I don't mean anything der-og-
[[271]]

p270 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p271w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p272

v?